CBI set to close case of missing Babri files

The CBI has decided to file a closure report to bring to an end its probe in the case of the 23 missing files believed to be related to the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

The agency has so far managed to trace 11 of those files and in its closure report it's going to say that the rest are untraceable.

Sources say that the CBI is unsure if these missing files hold any significance or bearing on the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi case.

The Sunni Central Waqf Board had filed a case against the Babri Masjid demolition as well as the missing files. By filing a closure report, the CBI will not indict any official of the UP government for the missing files.

In February, the Allahabad High Court had expressed reservation over the manner in which the CBI had gone about investigating the case of the missing files, going to the extent of saying that the agency appeared to be deliberately reluctant and slack.

In 2002, the Sunni Waqf Board had gone to court demanding that seven documents related to the dispute be traced as they were relevant to the case.

The UP government later conceded that 23, and not seven, files related to the case were missing from the state government's records.

The Allahabad High Court had asked the CBI to step in last July. But the agency has been unable to fully unravel the mystery behind these missing documents despite tracing 11 files following a search at the home department's office in the UP state secretariat.

The missing files are believed to include a telex from former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the UP government for removal of idols installed in Babri Masjid in 1949 and correspondence between the state and the Faizabad administration.

The UP government had contended the files went missing after Subhash Bhan Sadh, the officer on special duty in the communalism control cell of the state home department, died mysteriously in an accident at Tilak Bridge station after falling from a Delhi- bound train in 2000.

The state government said Sadh was carrying these important files to depose before the Liberhan Commission, which was probing the Babri Masjid demolition.

Do You Like This Story? Awesome! Now share the story Too bad. Tell us what you didn't like in the comments